The UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service) system is a cellular system and as such its UE (User Equipment) allows mobility inside the network coverage. The UE can then move from one cell to another and thereby change the reference NodeB. When the UE does not have a dedicated connection established with the reference NodeB, the UE can switch from one NodeB to another in function of its measurements. When the UE has an ongoing dedicated connection with the reference NodeB, the handover procedures based on the UE measurements allow the communication to switch from the vanishing reference NodeB to the new reference NodeB without the user noticing it.
The UE measurements performed by the network to insure mobility can be separated into the following categories:                Intra-frequency measurements which are measurements of downlink physical channels at the same frequency as the active set.        Inter-frequency measurements which are measurements of downlink physical channels at frequencies that differ from the frequency of the active set.        Inter-RAT measurements: measurements of downlink physical channels belonging to another radio access technology than UTRAN, e.g. GSM.        
In all the three above-mentioned cases, a measurement object corresponds to one cell.
Considering the Intra-frequency measurements, the UE measurement report to the NodeB is based on P-CPICH timing detection and power measurement. The P-CPICHs associated with the different NodeBs, are distinguished by a different scrambling code which is acting as an orthogonal signature.
FIG. 1 shows a scenario with one UE performing measurements on the neighbor cell NodeB 2 while being connected and reporting to the reference NodeB 1.
To insure the mobility, the P-CPICH associated measurements are not enough. The UE should also decode the PCCPCH for reporting the SFN-SFN timing difference.
However, due to the CDMA properties, information sent from different cells using the same scrambling code are orthogonal in relation to each other if the received sequences at the UE are not time aligned. On the other hand, in case of time alignment, the sequences are not orthogonal which is considered as a scrambling code collision.
Also, a UE legacy receiver cannot identify a neighbor P-CPICH nor PCCPCH with identical scrambling code if the timing collision corresponds to the following conditions:                Neighbor cells are close to each other in time and are received with overlapping delay spread at the UE receiver.        Neighbor cells are received with identical time at the UE receiver        
Also, associated with the two cells with the same scrambling code received at the UE with colliding timing, it will be correctly assumed that the transmitted cells information is completely different at the different PCCPCH.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a solution to the above-mentioned problems with the known prior art.